


Follow My Father's Star

by rose_a_lee



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Sad, Second Age, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-16 13:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20817926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rose_a_lee/pseuds/rose_a_lee
Summary: Elros no longer feels at home among the Elves and confides in Celebrimbor.





	Follow My Father's Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [undercat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undercat/gifts).

“Are you busy, cousin?”

Celebrimbor looked up, surprised to see Elros entering his tent. “I thought you went with your brother?”

“No.” Elros was avoiding his eyes. “I changed my mind.”

Elrond had set out earlier that morning with a hunting party. All of them were Elves who had ridden under the banner of Maglor and Maedhros. “I see.”

“How are the plans coming along?”

Celebrimbor sensed that Elros had not truly come to find out more about the designs for the haven settlement that Círdan envisaged, but he unrolled the scroll anyway. He hid his plans for his own domain underneath. “See for yourself. My best work, I think.” He smiled at his young cousin. “It needed to be. Ink and parchment will be luxuries for a while to come.”

Elros nodded. The land had not yet settled after being ripped apart in the cataclysm of the war with Morgoth. Whole plains sat scorched. Beleriand was mostly gone. Other shores had moved, and sometimes even now the earth still shook under their feet. Most of the Elves who remained were focused on feeding the population and caring for the war-wounded who had stayed behind. There wasn't the time to spend on making writing materials and the kind of finery Celebrimbor had been used to crafting in Nargothrond. It seemed so long ago now.

“Elrond means to follow Gil-galad,” Elros said slowly. His fingers walked over the outline of the city Celebrimbor had sketched. “He is going to pledge fealty to him. Will you do the same?”

“I do not know yet.” He did know. He and Artanis had already discussed it. “Will you?”

“I do not know either. I wonder what Maglor and Maedhros would say about us following Orodreth's son.”

“They were never going to make _me_ King, cousin,” Celebrimbor pointed out. “And neither you nor your brother wanted it when you were asked.”

“And I still do not want it.”

“Then what do you want?” he asked gently.

Elros did not answer immediately. “My brother always felt at home with the Elves. He adored Maglor and Maedhros and looked on them as parents. I do not think that should surprise me. They have the same kind of raw power. Maglor's is in his voice, Maedhros in his ability to command, and my brother's is in his gift to heal.”

“Do not underestimate your own powers, Elros.”

“It is not Elvish power.”

Celebrimbor hesitated. “Perhaps not.”

“You know that like our parents, we are free to choose our fate: mortality or the everlasting life of the Elves.”

“Oh, Elros.” He had wondered and even suspected that his cousin might go this way, but faced with the reality of it, his grief was like a blow to the chest.

“The Valar are raising a land from the sea for the Dunedain. I know that not all will travel there, but I will go with those that do.” Elros smiled sadly. “My brother will follow Gil-galad's banner. I will follow my father's star.”


End file.
